Abstract Summary
Since 1945, nuclear science and technology have oscillated between nationalism and internationalism. While the first decade after WW II was mostly characterized by military applications and national security, the launch of the American Atoms-for Peace-program in late 1953 promoted international cooperation. As a consequence, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of the United Nations was formed in 1957 to support peaceful applications of nuclear science. More or less simultaneously, Euratom was formed by the members of the European Economic Community (EEC) as a first attempt to promote cooperation also in science and technology. Already by the late 1950s, nuclear science and technology was thus connected to internationalization processes paralleling efforts in different countries to advance atomic weaponry. Since then, facilities for nuclear research include a mix of national labs such as the one in Oak Ridge, and international ones, for example Institute Laue-Langevin inaugurated in Grenoble in 1970, which includes a significant measure of science diplomacy between France, Germany and the UK. In the mid-1990s, OECD endorsed the construction of three nuclear spallation sources in America, Europe and Asia. This resulted in SNS in USA 2006 and JSNS in Japan 2008 while the most powerful of the three, the European Spallation Source (ESS), in contrast relying on a number of partner countries complicating decision, funding and design processes, is still under construction in Lund in southern Sweden. This example shows how interactions between science and diplomacy may be necessary to create larger facilities while simultaneously prolonging their creation.
